I only know my M1 mini has a fan because of teardowns and feeling cold air coming out from the back. Whatever I do, it stays quiet. These chips are magic.
Only issue with a new Mac is making the mistake of signing into iCloud. OK, it makes setup a million times easier, but then IT DOWNLOADS ALL THE SHIT I DON'T WANT.
Like, it's a server. Don't need any of this stuff, so then I have to go round after it turning off Photos, Messages, etc etc
@Sarah Brown I don't run a server but I'm very concerned about how tech companies use my data, so to the extent that I can, I cut them out of the loop.
@Florida Ted Were it Google or similar, I would agree.
But Apple's business model with their cloud services is to sell their hardware, and to sell the service directly. I pay them for a big encrypted hard disk in the cloud, they provide.
Nearly finished crunching my way through the Silo trilogy. One thing I can’t work out: the author is American, but the books are written in British English.
The copy of Neverwhere I bought in the States had Richard falling on the sidewalk in the opening chapter. In Edinburgh, some publishers localise a bit too much at times
Started reading the Silo trilogy after seeing the first two episodes on ATV+ and can’t get over the world building being utterly ruined by the author’s complete inability to work out how long it would take averagely fit people in typical physical shape to walk down and then up 150 flights of stairs (4 hours, give or take, if you take it easy and stop for lunch; it’s like half the Llanberis path up Snowdon).
Watched the first episode yesterday (didn't read the book so I don't know the plot). What amazes me is someone had the technology to build a seemingly self-sustaining world underground and didn't think about lifts. 😄
Also, not knowing the plot, I may be saying something silly, but I couldn't stop thinking “take of the helmet, you're being poisoned!" during the last part of the episode.
I may subscribe to watch this when all the episodes are released.
Twitter users wondering why they can’t get tech support are like guests in a burning hotel wondering why nobody is answering when they ring the front desk to enquire why their room is full of smoke and they can’t get the Discovery Channel.
Some scientist on the net is VERY CONCERNED you guys that sand was found on cars five miles from the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy launch. Apparently there must be TERRIBLE FORCES OF DOOM involved because there is bi feasible way sand could travel that far through the air unless launched initially with TERRIFYING POWER.
Which gets me wondering what truly scary space programme Morocco must have because their shit from here keeps ending up on my windows.
BTW I haven't got notifications of your replies in the past few days. Today is probably explained by the great mitigation going on over the spam thing, but not sure about the previous days. 😀
So I've had Bluesky for a couple of days. Some observations (and I'm going to use an actual list. If Mastodon doesn't render it, complain to Gargron)...
There is a significant overlap between there and here in terms of users
Of the non overlapping parts, we think they're all weird crypto nerds and they think we're all weird tech nerds
I haven't actually seen any crypto nerds there
You get followed by random people all the time
They think we have sticks up our arses to the extent that "you aren't allowed to say anything on Mastodon(SIC); it's like if social media had an HOA"
They think we have no sense of humour
Their perception of us is, I think, inaccurate
Our perception of them is, I think, inaccurate
It feels a lot like Twitter
If their perception of us was accurate, I would have a hundred angry replies to this because I said, "Twitter", and haven't content warned anything.
They're living in a kind of antebellum age of innocenc
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So I've had Bluesky for a couple of days. Some observations (and I'm going to use an actual list. If Mastodon doesn't render it, complain to Gargron)...
There is a significant overlap between there and here in terms of users
Of the non overlapping parts, we think they're all weird crypto nerds and they think we're all weird tech nerds
I haven't actually seen any crypto nerds there
You get followed by random people all the time
They think we have sticks up our arses to the extent that "you aren't allowed to say anything on Mastodon(SIC); it's like if social media had an HOA"
They think we have no sense of humour
Their perception of us is, I think, inaccurate
Our perception of them is, I think, inaccurate
It feels a lot like Twitter
If their perception of us was accurate, I would have a hundred angry replies to this because I said, "Twitter", and haven't content warned anything.
They're living in a kind of antebellum age of innocence there, and it's not clear how they're going to manage when the worst people in the world turn up
Anyway, it's going to be interesting, for sure.
And like I said, if this looks like arse on Mastodon, complain to Gargron
is there a popularity voting system there? I always feel like the lack of it here is part of why many don't like it, though none admit it in so many words
Wow, that’s a flashback. I’ve got my terminal configured so when I SSH in from my tablet, scrolling is a drag motion. Even in helix editor and less. Going back would break my brain.
"Being disposed of a natural curiosity", sounds like the opening line to a Victorian short story, in which the protagonist inevitably ends up in trouble
I've heard that part of the problem is that the moderation system, means that whilst you may not be able to see certain content, those users can still see you (that and such users are not simply banned but simply labelled). Of course this is anecdotal as I've not tried it. Thanks for being a guinea pig so I don't have to.
Record profits for large companies and retailers. Even young adults in well paid jobs can’t afford a home. Increasingly it’s not possible to actually buy anything to own anymore; you have to rent it, even if it’s the ability of your car stereo to play music.
Rampant profiteering, presented as “inflation” (bullshit), and governments respond with tax cuts on VAT which help in the short term, but serve to concentrate even more of the wealth of humanity in the hands of a few by funnelling it upwards.
What we are living through is a concerted attempt by a few thousand people to turn the entire fucking planet into a company store.
Hell, I’m pretty bloody bougie and I feel like these bastards are fighting class war against me. It’s like, if your individual worth is less than 10 figures, then you are going to be slowly stripped of it along with everyone else, in this grace new world of the Musks and the Thiels and the ones whose names we don’t know.
A reckoning is coming, one way or another. I can’
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Record profits for large companies and retailers. Even young adults in well paid jobs can’t afford a home. Increasingly it’s not possible to actually buy anything to own anymore; you have to rent it, even if it’s the ability of your car stereo to play music.
Rampant profiteering, presented as “inflation” (bullshit), and governments respond with tax cuts on VAT which help in the short term, but serve to concentrate even more of the wealth of humanity in the hands of a few by funnelling it upwards.
What we are living through is a concerted attempt by a few thousand people to turn the entire fucking planet into a company store.
Hell, I’m pretty bloody bougie and I feel like these bastards are fighting class war against me. It’s like, if your individual worth is less than 10 figures, then you are going to be slowly stripped of it along with everyone else, in this grace new world of the Musks and the Thiels and the ones whose names we don’t know.
A reckoning is coming, one way or another. I can’t see how it wouldn’t be.
Same, in French-speaking part of Brussels but the server was also a foreigner and spoke much less French than I. Doesn't bother the lunch crowd, though!
@spydergrrl The Zoe starts the radio every single time you start the car, with no option to change. This is the reason why Star Wars is full of real knobs and switches, and amazing junk shops trading them.
How old is the car and how’s the battery life so far? I’ve always wondered how well does the Leaf do long term on hot climates being one of the few EVs without an actively cooled battery.
Battery still reporting 100% health. Had the car for 2 years and done about 30,000km. No cooling os a problem if I want to go more than 600km in a day, but that’s rare.
The Divine Comedy's song "National Express" has a cheerful and lighthearted message that encourages a sense of exploration and adventure. The lyrics descri...
"My Lovely Horse" is a whimsical ode to the pleasures of horseback riding. The lyrics describe the narrator's admiration and love for the horse, and their ...
also, when I first heard the song long-distance bus travel was exciting and fun for me, especially in the UK where the roads were so much better, so I associate it with nice things.
The patriotic song from Cabaret, in the Biergarten in pre-war Nazi Germany, sung by the Arian Hitler youth. You see many young and old people getting taken ...
If you live by the sea you learn about tides, that's normal. Ah well
Helped marshall a sailing competition in Paignton once, had to go rescue some Italian boats because they didn't believe the tide could get as high as it did and hadn't dragged them far enough
@Matþew Bowles 7 metres in Brighton. To be fair, that catches a lot of tidal sailors from elsewhere out. They really are not used to the height of UK tides.
I have just listened, for the first time in my half-century life, to a Grateful Dead track all the way through, and I can’t shake the following phrase from my mind:
GP just called. They want to schedule my annual checkup. ECG, bloods, X-rays, dental. It’s gonna take most of the day.
Granted, this is nominally private healthcare, but I don’t have private health insurance, just a “care card”, which costs me 400 euros for 3 years and includes this, plus a 10% discount for GP appointments (which would normally cost 50 euros).
Compare to the UK NHS where I would get some of this (but not dental) without paying anything, but the level of detail would be … considerably less.
Anything serious and the state will treat it for free, but for just over 100 euros a year I honestly can’t complain about this level of detail.
So Musk is a charlatan and a bullshit merchant, and often does not know what he's talking about, as well as a threat to democracy.
However, the number of people gleefully proclaiming this and then proceeding to write utter uniformed bollocks themselves about the Starship/Super Heavy test flight is ... aggravating. I find hypocrisy annoying.
In particular, the " People said he knew what he was doing with rockets, but look at that, lol!" take.
The reality is that SpaceX does know what it is doing. Do not confuse production launch services, their bread and butter, in which they are literally more capable than the entire rest of the planet put together, with a research and development facility blowing up test flight articles.
I get it, it's funny ti laugh at the arsehole because his rocket blew up and his launch pad got destroyed, but the idea that building stuff deliberately to test to destruction is somehow bad engineering practice is simply wrong. We've done it before with spaceflight (there was far more of it during the race to the moon than most peo
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So Musk is a charlatan and a bullshit merchant, and often does not know what he's talking about, as well as a threat to democracy.
However, the number of people gleefully proclaiming this and then proceeding to write utter uniformed bollocks themselves about the Starship/Super Heavy test flight is ... aggravating. I find hypocrisy annoying.
In particular, the " People said he knew what he was doing with rockets, but look at that, lol!" take.
The reality is that SpaceX does know what it is doing. Do not confuse production launch services, their bread and butter, in which they are literally more capable than the entire rest of the planet put together, with a research and development facility blowing up test flight articles.
I get it, it's funny ti laugh at the arsehole because his rocket blew up and his launch pad got destroyed, but the idea that building stuff deliberately to test to destruction is somehow bad engineering practice is simply wrong. We've done it before with spaceflight (there was far more of it during the race to the moon than most people realise), we deliberately crash cars to see how they survive in accidents, we deliberately crash trains, we deliberately fire chickens into jet engines, we deliberately crash planes, we deliberately sink boats, and so on and so on and so on.
Sometimes the only way to get good data about how and when stuff fails is to destroy it and see what happens.
I would draw particular attention to the Soviet N1 programme, under Sergei Korolev, who is literally regarded as perhaps the greatest rocket engineer who ever lived.
And it took him 3 attempts to get an N1 not quite as far as SpaceX managed to get last week...
...the second of which also destroyed the launch pad, in what is still the largest rocket explosion of all time.
So they rebuilt the pad and launched a third one.
Then the Americans landed on the moon, and they gave up.
Also worth noting that until last week, the N1 still held the record for the most powerful rocket ever launched. Literally nobody has tried to launch a rocket this big before, ever.
They say money can’t buy happiness, but they are wrong. Money can buy happiness. It’s just that some people who can afford it chose to spend it buying Twitter instead.
Occasionally I will pop into what used to be branded “British supermarkets” in Portugal for a few bits and pieces that are harder to come by in Portuguese supermarkets. British style bacon is the main one. Also swedes and other Northern European vegetables.
Over the last few years I have watched the branding change from, “direct from the UK” with union jacks everywhere, to “imported from the British isles” (Ireland) to yesterday: “imported just for you” … from the Netherlands.
Tl;dr: even British people abroad no longer import stuff from Brexit Britain.
Miguel Arroz
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.